When Ianto Met Lisa
by Nightengale
Summary: The begining of Ianto and Lisa's realtionship at Torchwood one. more in the Doctor Who verse location wise, isn't it? Complete!
1. When Ianto Met Lisa

One week into the job Ianto Jones believed that Torchwood one was the best job he had ever had. Two weeks after that he believed it was the worst. Then a week later he was back to the best again. Torchwood had a way of making your life into a see saw like that. Truly it was the best and worst job you could ever have, even in a position like Ianto's. It especially was the best job when Ianto met a girl named Lisa.

Ianto had been recruited to work at Torchwood. Previously he had worked in a lawyer's office. He had come into the place to fix them up. All of the people at the firm were excellent lawyers but very badly organized. They had been loosing clients and money because of it. Thus, Ianto, organizer extraordinaire, had been hired. He fixed their computer system, cleaning out all the bugs and programming a better, more organized system for them. He got all their files into order, kept different clients clear, and made sure no one stepped on each other's toes when it came to cases.

He worked there for two years before he was approached by Torchwood. How exactly they had found him at the firm he did not know. However, apparently his skills at whipping completely despondent companies into shape were known outside of the firm. Somehow they knew he had an open mind and were not at all worried about him saying something like 'aliens? Are you on drugs?' when they told him about Torchwood. In fact what they said was,

"Mr. Jones, we know you are a man who is good at what he does and won't ask too many questions. We've seen what help you were to the Bronson law office and we could use an organized mind such as yours at Torchwood. Now, what we tell you now cannot be repeated outside of this room."

Ianto had simply nodded across the interviewing table at the blonde haired woman.

"Torchwood is in charge of dealing with extra terrestrial threats against the empire. Our motto is 'if it's alien, it's ours' and we stick to that. Anything alien we come across we claim, study, and protect against. As you can imagine that takes a lot of work to bring in everything we find as well as keep it from the public."

After her little speech Ianto hadn't even mentioned the alien part. Strangely enough it hadn't been a huge shock to his psyche, perhaps that was one thing which made him good for the job. All he had said was,

"And which part do you need me for, the finding or the keeping from the public?"

She had smiled very slowly at him then handed him a folder.

"That contains your job requirements. You start Monday."

And there you were. Ianto Jones worked for Torchwood. Ianto was put in the public information division at first. His job was to help clean up all messes and provide cover ups or spin coverage as needed. He erased memories, kept track of witnesses to alien events, invented news stories about what 'really happened' at alien crash sites, and, of course, organized all the files and data for the division. He worked with four others and really it was a plum job. However, Ianto only stayed there for a few months before he was moved up a division to 'alien artifacts.' There he did much the same job, organizing every scrap of metal or rock that came in, keeping the data base running properly and letting nothing fall through the cracks. It was a lot of data entry, programming, and filing. However, that was what Ianto was good at. No file was ever lost and he knew everything in the system.

In was in AA section that Ianto first met Lisa.

It was about three weeks or so into his transfer to the department and he was making coffee. It wasn't really one of Ianto jobs to make coffee for everyone but it had sort of become a habit. Carrie was absolute shit at it. Her coffee always tasted like it had been sitting there for a week. Mark refused to touch the pot after he had slipped once and poured boiling water all over himself and screamed like a little girl. Barbara's was always too weak and Max's too strong. Thus, Ianto brewed the coffee and everyone was thankful for it.

He was making three cups for himself, Mark, and the new girl Sue when Lisa came up beside him.

"Making the coffee again, are you?"

Ianto had not met her yet but the minute he looked up at her he nearly dropped the mug he was holding. She was absolutely gorgeous! He blinked at her in silence for a moment until he remembered that he should probably say something.

"Oh well, everyone else has basically given up."

She smiled at him. "Yeah, I never even gave it a try especially with you bringing in all these different kinds and actual beans and all."

Ianto tried not to blush.

"Well, everyone likes something a little different." He put down the mug he was holding as he had just remembered that he was still holding it.

She smiled at him and held out her hand. "I'm Lisa."

"Ianto." He replied, shaking her hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

Her smile widened and she picked up an empty mug. "Think you have enough in there for me?"

Holding up the pot he looked at it then smiled at her. "Well, I suppose I can manage to get one more cup out."

"Thanks."

He poured her a mug, handed her the sugar bowl then picked up his own mug. They stood in silence for a while, both blowing on their coffee. Ianto kept trying not to smile stupidly. It seemed with just a short conversation he was already smitten with this woman he had just met. She had spoken to him first, smiled, asked for some of his coffee. Ianto kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye. She was tall and slender, such beautiful dark skin. He especially liked her spiky hair style, something that he could imagine his mother tut tuting about.

"So…" She broke the silence. "How long have you worked here at Torchwood? I've only been here about two month's myself."

Ianto swallowed his coffee quickly, "Oh well, I worked in public information for about four months, getting it all organized, up to par. I only got transferred here about three weeks ago."

"Oh, step up." Lisa said, with a grin and a sip of her coffee.

Ianto tried to pretend he didn't blush and giggle inside at her smile. He felt like a little school girl!

"Well, good for me but you were here straight off now weren't you?"

Smiling she looked away for a minute. Was she blushing too? Then she turned back and shrugged. "Well, I've got some biology skills deemed important for this section."

Ianto just nodded. Most of the work and experiments and tinkering the science folk did with the alien things they collected was over his head or not his concern. He worried for a moment that she might think he was too stupid to talk to when she realized he was mostly just a secretary.

They both fell silent again, sipping at their coffee. Looking down at the table beside them Ianto remembered why he was over there in the first place.

"Well, um…" Ianto picked up the tray he had made with the coffee for Max and Sue. "I should probably get back to work."

"Do you want to go for a drink later?" Lisa asked in a rush.

He nearly dropped the tray. "Oh, um, a drink? Yes, of course, yes! That would be good."

He could see her sigh slightly with relief. "Alright then! I'll see you out front at day's end? There's a pub a few blocks away, really good house brew."

Smiling widening, Ianto nodded. "I'll see you then." Then he added as an after thought, "Lisa."

Smiling a little awkwardly they looked at each other for a moment then turned and walked in their opposite directions.

As he handed a coffee mug to Sue, Ianto felt that classic nervous feeling forming in his stomach. It seemed that today he had a date. She was beautiful, she had come over to talk to him, and her name was Lisa. Sitting down at his desk Ianto did not think about his work, look at the papers to be filed, or even finish his coffee.

Ianto had a date after work and he was excited!


	2. Two Months and Five Days

"You don't have to do this."

Ianto looked back at Lisa sitting at his kitchen table.

"No one said anything about 'have to.' I want to."

He stirred the soup in front of him, checking the time on the oven clock. Yes, he was cooking Lisa dinner. They had been dating for a month now and had only ever gone out for meals. They had yet to sit down to eat a home cooked dinner in either of their flats.

"I don't want you to go to so much trouble."

Putting the spoon down Ianto walked over to her and placed a kiss on her lips.

"Does it look like I'm going through 'so much trouble'?" He asked, smiling in his best 'hello I am here to help you' secretary way.

She snorted at him and covered her eyes with one hand. "Ok, ok, put away the work smile."

Ianto turned back to the stove to cook. He really enjoyed any little thing he could do for Lisa. She was making him so happy. Quite often now after work they would meet and go to the pub which was the site of their first date. They would walk around London, checking out ridiculously priced shops pretending to be interested in buying or would go around commenting on every other random piece of trash or art work they saw saying it was alien so it was theirs. They had eaten in half the restaurants in London already, causing a bit of a scene in two of them with their overly boisterous laughter.

"So, am I going to have to call the fire department or you going to finish cooking over there?"

Ianto gave her a look. "Are you demeaning my cooking before you even try it?"

"Of course not." She was grinning at him. "I just happen to be rather hungry."

Lisa was just making him so happy. Ianto had never realized he could feel this happy. Just her smile could make him feel weak, make him forget everything else. She could stop him in mid sentence with a look. She could just walk by his desk at work and he would completely forget what he was supposed to be doing. Ianto had a sneaking suspicion that he was falling in love with her, and falling hard. It had only been a month!

"Well," Ianto replied. "Lucky for you it is just about done so you can stop the call to the fire brigade."

"Oh good." Lisa said, standing up and curling her arms around his waist from behind. "I'm sure its going to be lovely."

Lisa kissed the side of his head as he turned off the oven. A shiver went up Ianto's spine and he couldn't help but smile.

---------------

After two months Ianto knew he was in love.

"Aliens 101, my favorite way to pass the day." Lisa whispered next to him.

And Ianto was deliriously happy with that.

"I think we get to hear the famous speech today too." He replied.

They were having a brush up training class. Everyone received basic training in the policies and history of Torchwood along with a basic psychic training and run through of operations when they were first hired by Torchwood. However, like many businesses, they had brush up courses now and then, just to keep everyone up to date.

"I think I've heard it three times by now. The one time it was because Marcus was practicing saying it properly and I couldn't get away even though I was supposed to be analyzing a item we had just found which clearly had been alive at some point."

Lisa crossed her legs and Ianto couldn't help but notice how much he enjoyed it when Lisa wore a skirt to work.

"I mean it had a cell structure and everything but it opened up like it was a box! It had some plant properties we see here and then some I couldn't categorize through the database. Yet there I was, trapped by Marcus to hear the Queen Victoria speech!"

Ianto loved it when Lisa went on her biologist rants.

"Alright everyone!" The head of their division, Marcus, was at the front of the room.

They both sighed and looked at him. Ianto holded his hands and pursed his lips. He could be updating the weeks findings and corrections into the computer system right now. Idleness was not something Ianto enjoyed and this lecture certainly seemed like idle nothing to him.

"Today we are just brushing up on what you already know, review for most of you, but pay attention anyhow." Marcus continued.

"Pay attention to our favorite rules and procedures, oh yes of course." Lisa muttered.

Ianto contained a snort of laughter and looked dutifully at the front of the room. "Well, you know that I was planning on stealing something from the archives this afternoon. Perhaps a review of procedure will put me off."

They looked at each other and laughed quietly.

"Torchwood was founded in 1879…"

Then Ianto tuned out. Normally when his superior was speaking he would be paying absolute attention. Ianto was a diligent worker like that. However, this was his second review session and it was usually the same every time. Queen Victoria, the Doctor, be careful with this, always on alert, its alien it's ours, yadda yadda. Damn, he could be getting so much other work done with this time.

Sometimes Ianto felt that Torchwood was a little daft. Granted some aliens probably were not out to make friends and have tea with Earth and England but were all aliens really a threat? Ianto didn't think so. However, apparently Torchwood needed to protect against 'the alien hoard' and Ianto had to admit the things they found were very interesting. He didn't get a lot of contact with the items but what he did see in the hangers and development offices was fascinating! Particle weapons, space ships that looked like rocks, organic technology, and not to mention their computer system which Ianto was particularly fond of.

"As you all know anything alien you should come across consider Torchwood property. Even if it is not your area of specialty if you should find something bring it in," Marcus was bringing up various images on the large screen computer, "Minding all protocol of course."

"What if I was just walking along and find a death ray lying in the road?" Lisa said in Ianto's ear. "I'd have to stand there and think, 'which part of this may kill me?' before I could pick it up and suddenly run back to work."

Ianto was only half listening to what Lisa said as her breath on his ear was making him more than a little distracted.

"After all…" she spoke very slowly and Ianto had to clench his fists. "What if someone else saw it…?"

Surely Lisa was not making that amazing motion on his thigh and breath in his ear in a staff meeting on purpose.

"Ianto…" she whispered, running one hand down his arm.

Oh, the woman knew exactly what she was doing to him. How very evil of her.

"In Queen Victoria's speech at the inception of Torchwood in…"

Sometimes work was not the most important thing. In fact when Lisa was concerned work was rarely more important. What was important when you were sitting in a work conference in the second to last row in the back, was your girlfriend's lips dangerously close to your ear.

"Perhaps…" Lisa continued whispering as Ianto shifted his legs carefully. "Perhaps after work we should head straight back to my flat? What do you say, Ianto?"

"Oh, god yes…" Ianto said a little too loudly causing the people in the row in front of them to look back in annoyance.

Lisa sat back as Ianto flushed slightly. He flashed them his secretary grin and they turned away.

"Sometimes you are a rather evil woman." Ianto said still looking straight ahead.

"I know." He could see Lisa grinning out of the corner of his eye. "And you love it."

Ianto paused and turned to look at her. "I do."

She was so very beautiful.

---------------

The alarm went off and Ianto's hand shot out slamming down on the button to make the infernal noise disappear. He blinked away the blurriness from his eyes and groaned. It was 6 AM.

"Fuck…" he muttered.

The sun was beginning to peek through the blinds. Rolling over Ianto looked at Lisa still sleeping next to him. She usually did not wake up if Ianto turned the alarm off straight away. One hand was curled under her cheek as she breathed slowly on her side. Ianto just looked at her for a moment. He lightly stroked her hair and her cheek. He didn't know anyone else who could look so gorgeous while sleeping.

Gazing at her face Ianto wondered how he was so lucky to have her.

"I love you." He whispered, kissing her forehead.

Ianto hadn't actually said I love you to Lisa yet when she was awake. He didn't want to scare her off being as they had been dating a rather short time. Somehow he couldn't help saying it just then.

Ianto turned away and swung his feet off the edge of the bed. Time to get up but he'd let Lisa sleep a bit more while he made breakfast.

"Ianto."

He whipped his head around to look at Lisa is surprise. Her eyes were open looking up at him.

"I love you too."

It was two months, five days, and Ianto suddenly realized where the phrase 'heart skipped a beat' came from.

Sliding back into bed, Ianto lay down next to Lisa and kissed her. They smiled at each other. They seemed a bit like children to Ianto in that moment, shy but so happy at a personal omission. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tight against his bare chest. The sensation to begin laughing in hysterics came over him but Ianto settled for a broad smile as Lisa grinned back.

"Did you sleep well?" Ianto finally asked.

"I always sleep well when you're in my bed."

Ianto laughed and rolled onto his back. "Yes, my rolling about and stealing the blankets must be the absolute best night sleep of all." He looked back at her with a grin.

Leaning forward, Lisa cupped his cheek and kissed him long and hard. "The very best."

Ianto decided that he rather liked being in love.


	3. When Ianto Lost Lisa

It had been 2 weeks and 4 days since the completion of Canary Warf and one month since the void ship and the ghosts came through into the world.

The new building was huge but Torchwood didn't actually use the whole thing. Basically the top half was theirs while the lower half was various other businesses which had to pay rent to Torchwood for use of the space. All the elevators had security to insane proportions to make sure none of the more curious members of these others companies tired to find out just what was located on the top floors.

With the creation of Canary Warf the focus of Torchwood turned completely on its head and all anyone was in charge of or talked about or worked on was the ghosts and the sphere. Other things came in, little things, unimportant things and they were given to the lowest level of personal possible. Everyone else was involved with the ghosts any way they could be. It was ghost energy, ghost locations, ghost activity, change in ghosts, amount of ghosts, controlled media about the ghosts; everything was about the ghosts that they didn't even know were really ghosts.

And if you weren't working on the ghosts and you were still upper level you were involved with the sphere. However, that was only about four people and no one really wanted to be in the same room as that thing that apparently did not exist.

Over in Ianto's division there was a lot of activity. They were all working on possible ways to use the ghost energy, increase the output, and find out just what the ghosts were. Ianto was entering in an awful lot of information on the ghosts in the system. It was becoming increasingly difficult for him to keep up with the reports and statistics that needed to be organized properly and put into the system for use the next day or even the next hour. However, they all kept up with the pace.

Lisa was very excited about the work. She was working with some others in their division to discover just what the ghosts were, what they were made of, if they were really ghosts. Granted it was difficult for them because they only had short bursts of time to actually work with the ghosts and try to perform any tests or experiments.

Basically, Torchwood was insane right then.

"Ianto!"

Ianto turned around at his name just to have Sue drop about ten files into his arms. Nearly dropping them because she practically threw them at him Ianto bit back the comment he wished he could make. She sped on by him without even a thank you.

'One of these days…' Ianto thought as he walked back to his desk.

"Ghost shift in ten minutes" said the voice of Yvonne over the PA.

Lisa poked her head into his office. "Hey there." She said to him.

Ianto grinned at her from his seat. "Hi."

"We're going to try get a sample from one of them today," Lisa said with a grin like a kid who had about fifty dollars in a candy store on her face, "We're got a much better idea of what to do this time and I really think it's going to work!"

She was so beautiful when she smiled like that.

"I'm sure it will. Good luck."

Leaning in from the door way into his tiny office, Lisa gave him a quick peck on the lips then whirled out of the doorway back down the hall. He watched her receding figure for a moment then turned back to his computer to input his new batch of files and reports. Apparently, as the first report told him, the amount of ghosts had increased by 10 from the last recording.

Soon the PA was buzzing again, "Ghost shift commencing."

Ianto grit his teeth and tried to keep looking at his computer screen. He had never liked the thought of ghosts when he was a boy even though he'd never even seen one then. Now that they appeared out in the streets every day visible and a part of life it just made him tense. They still didn't even know what the ghosts really were and that worried Ianto a bit. Granted they hadn't shown any hostility towards anyone but that still didn't mean Ianto couldn't be nervous about them. Why had they appeared with the sphere anyhow? They didn't even know what the sphere was, let alone the multitude of ghosts.

Then there they were again, Ianto could see the two which usually materialized down the hall out of the corner of his eye. He was quite grateful that none ever appeared in his office. What would he do anyhow, serve it coffee? Continuing to type, Ianto tried to ignore the gray figures in the back of his vision.

Lucky for Ianto the ghost shift only lasted a few minutes and then the ghosts faded away again. Ianto let out a sigh and turned back, as he always did, to make sure they were really gone. Standing up Ianto went down the hall to see how things had gone with the test. Max was sitting at his desk typing rapidly while Lisa was standing beside Mark looking disappointed.

"So?" Ianto asked them.

All three turned to look at him.

"Failure." Mark said simply, putting an oddly shaped box and what looked like an upgraded needle down on the table beside him.

Ianto turned his attention to Lisa. She just gave him a sad look and sat back down at her desk. Ianto knew she had been quite sure it would work this time. Walking over to her desk Ianto stood and waited for her to speak. Obviously she wanted to rant a little before getting back to work. Finally, after staring angrily at her desk for awhile she looked up at Ianto and sighed.

"We'd thought since we're not quite sure what they're made of that we could try treating them like a gas. Since obviously it's a lot of energy we've been charting but we can't really touch them. Granted their composition, from what we've gathered, isn't exactly like any gas we know but a gas is the closest we've got!" She huffed and threw her hands up for a moment. "Then I thought if we…" She trailed off and sighed again.

"It's all right, Lisa." Ianto said.

"We've just tried so many things. I want to crack this!" Lisa said, staring at her computer screen. "There has to be a way to figure out what they are."

Yvonne was interested in the energy and the possibilities for Britain. Lisa was all curiosity. She wanted to know what they were, what they were made of, where they came from; were they ghosts or not? Really how could Ianto not love her?

"It'll happen." Ianto said and Lisa looked up at him. "With you on the job how could it not?"

A smile finally spread across her face to replace the disappointment of before.

"You really are my favorite Welshman." She joked.

"I should hope so." Ianto replied and turned away back down the hall.

--------------------------

Then it happened, the day when what once had been happiness and light became sharp, cold, steel; the day when everything that had once been good became glass stabbing into skin; the day when it all fell apart, all in just one day.

Ianto was running down the hall. The ghost shift had ended early. Something had gone wrong.

"Lisa?"

"Why did it stop?" Lisa only glanced at him as she was interrogating Sue. "Have we heard anything?"

Everyone was bustling about the main room, hands grabbing papers, fingers flying over keyboards. Marcus was yelling into his ear phone.

"No, what do you mean? I didn't do it. Did you call Yvonne? What?"

"Ianto!"

He whirled around to face Mark.

"Get the stats from yesterday, maybe we've hit a wall."

Jogging back down the hall Ianto slid into his office. Luckily he still had a copy of yesterday's stats on his desk and not completely filed away in the vast archives adjoining his office. Grabbing the paper he raced back down the hall and handed it straight to Mark.

"Check the numbers," Mark said over Barbara's shoulder, "Did it go down?"

People dashed about in all directions and Ianto couldn't help but think for a split second before he focused again that something had to be very wrong. Then he was back in the now, pulling up files of the past day on the nearest computer, knowing where everything was faster than the others.

"Everything was reading fine it looks like." Ianto said as Marcus came up along side him.

"What has Yvonne said?" Marcus practically screamed, his hand on his ear.

"Maybe they've left." Sue said. "Maybe the ghosts have gone back where the came from."

Raising an eyebrow Ianto looked at her incredulously and Mark made a mock motion to whack her on the head.

"They were just here!"

"They're not going back until I know what they are anyhow." Lisa said, pounding harder than necessary on her keyboard.

Ianto repressed a grin and handed the latest print out of yesterday's power levels to Mark. Despite all the chaos Ianto found a little joy in seeing all the high and mighty scientists on their wits ends, Lisa excluded of course. Sometimes it was good for everyone to be clueless. Granted being clueless at Torchwood was a rather dangerous thing. Ianto let out a puff of air.

"It looks like they shut it down up top level." Barbara said.

Lisa pursed her lips and looked at Ianto. "But why would they do that?"

"It's the Doctor!"

All motion in the room stopped. Ianto turned his head to where the voice had come from. It was a girl from division four standing in the glass doorway to the main office. Everyone was staring at her now, frozen in place.

"The Doctor is here!" she repeated.

Finally Marcus broke the silence, "What!"

"The Doctor, the Tardis, and his companion; they are here with Yvonne right now!"

"You can't be serious." Marcus said.

"I am completely serious! He is here."

Ianto's eyes turned to look into Lisa's. She had the same expression of surprise and wonder as he did. Then the room exploded with sound and movement all over again. Now instead of rushing about worry about the ghosts, computer screens were suddenly full of images of a blue police box, lists of sightings, and blurry pictures of a man of many faces. Ianto fought his way across the room to Lisa's desk.

"Lisa."

She looked up at him and crossed her arms. "This is nuts, Ianto. It's never been nuts like this here before."

Lisa was not a fan of chaos in the work place. Her flat was a pig sty but her work place was spotless. Insanity and rushing about like this was clearly making her on edge.

"It'll be ok, Lisa," Ianto said, putting a hand on her arm. "He's with Yvonne any way. It really shouldn't be our concern… though it seems to be that everyone is trying to make it theirs."

"If he's with Yvonne, doesn't that mean he's our prisoner now?" Lisa asked.

Ianto opened his mouth then closed it again. That was true. 'If it's alien, it's ours.' They didn't often ever catch actual alien life forms. They had some dead ones but rarely alive and nothing like the Doctor. Ianto suddenly felt very wrong.

Fifteen minutes later the insanity had changed into near silence. The office had returned to its desk work but no one was talking, personal or otherwise. Each employee was typing away or staring off into space. They may have been working but everyone's mind was on one thing. The Doctor. Ianto had finished entering the files into the computer system. Now all that was left was to put the hard copies into filing.

"Ghost shift in 5 minutes," announced the PA.

Looks like the Doctor would get to see the ghost shift from the inside.

"Ianto," Marcus was in his doorway. "Er… do you think you could find some files for me."

"Certainly, sir. I was just about to go and file these." He held up the folders on his desk.

"Could you get me the reports from the last ten years on the Doctor?"

Hardly a surprising request but Ianto nodded. Picking up the files Ianto went through the narrow door adjacent to his office into the large room that was only one branch of the archives of Torchwood one. The room was rather cavernous for such a new building. The back wall was barely visible from where Ianto had entered. However, Ianto had been at Torchwood long enough to know the archives rather well. It certainly made things a lot easier when filing.

Walking through the rows Ianto began to put folders away while simultaneously pulling some out. Suddenly Ianto heard the sounds of the ghost shift but there had been no announcement. Placing the files down on the edge of the abinet Ianto walked down the long isle to the door he had come in. Was there something wrong with the PA? He reached the door and was about the walk through when he saw in place of the gray ghostly figures at the end of the hall there were what appeared to be metal robots.

"Shi-"

Ianto cut himself off and whirled back around, his back to the wall by the edge of the door.

'What the hell?' He thought in panic.

It looked as though they had been invaded.

Peeking his head around the doorway he saw that the closest robot was not facing toward him, so Ianto decided to be daring. He crept out the door and ducked behind his desk. All Torchwood one employees were given basic firearms training and were issued one gun. Ianto's was in his desk. Now he just had to open the drawer without making any noise.

"You will be upgraded," a strange computerized voice said.

Ianto peered out slowly from behind his desk, trying to see down the hall through the glass of his office.

"What!" It was Marcus. "No. We won't have anything to do with whatever you are planning!"

Then there was the sound of some sort of weapon being fired and a scream. They had just killed Marcus.

"Oh my god!" It was little Sue.

Ianto opened the drawer in a quick motion and grabbed the gun out of it, turning off the safety and cocking it. However, he wasn't sure how much good his gun was going to be against something made out of metal.

"You will be upgraded," they said again and Ianto heard feet marching away from him.

Looking around the corner of his office door he saw the robots leading the rest of the employees of his division away, out the main door, including Lisa. He wanted to shout to her, tell her to run, but there had to be at least seven of those robots surrounding all of the others. Once they all exited Ianto left his office and carefully followed, determination setting in to go with an increasing sense of fear. What could he do?

Out in the main hall he could hear the sounds of shooting coming from the lower levels. Cleary, all of the ghosts had turned into these invaders. The sounds of commotion were coming from ahead of him where the others had gone. Ianto poked his head into the stairwell to see if anyone else was coming. Was he all on his own?

"Halt."

Eyes wide Ianto froze at the voice of one of them.

'Fuck.'

A heavy metal hand clamped on his shoulder and turned him around. His gun fell from his hand and Ianto stared into the flat metal face, small holes for eyes and a mouth. He couldn't have moved if he wanted to.

"You will be upgraded."

Ianto didn't even ask what that meant.

"Move!" a female voice shouted suddenly and Ianto instinctively ducked.

A blur shot by him and rammed into the robot causing it to tumble into the stairwell, over the bar, and down. Jumping up, Ianto turned to find Sue standing by him.

"You saved my life!" He said.

She just nodded at him then spoke rapidly, "They're Cybermen." She said, breathing heavily. "We have to get out of her. We have to!"

"What?"

"Cybermen. That's what they're called. I saw Samantha from upstairs. The Doctor called them Cybermen and they're from another dimension. They want to upgrade us!"

"What does that mean?" Leaning down Ianto picked up his gun as he spoke.

"It means make us like them!"

Blinking, Ianto couldn't respond. Like them? She nodded vigorously at him as if she could read his thoughts. She looked like she was about to cry. He realized then that Sue was ever more terrified than he was. Gripping his gun tightly Ianto took her hand.

"Let's go."

"No!" She said in a whisper, "not that way!"

"We can't just leave them." Ianto insisted. "And Lisa is down there."

"No!" She pulled her hand away from his.

Ianto looked at her for a moment then turned away and headed down the hall. He heard people screaming and sounds of machinery. Was this the upgrade? As Ianto rounded the corner he saw three of the Cybermen with Carrie standing between them shaking.

"Hey!" Ianto shouted and fired off a shot at them.

It ricocheted off the metal surface uselessly. Ianto gulped as two turned around and pointed at him with their fists. Then there was a crash and the building shook. Alarms went off. There was a fire somewhere in the building and Ianto soon learned that it was in their division office since he could see the orange down the hall where he had come from. Sue was nowhere in sight. Plaster fell from the ceiling onto the Cybermen and Carrie took off running in the opposite direction. Where was Lisa?

Running down the hall way towards the Cybermen, Ianto suddenly saw something in the sky out the window. The Cybermen were distracted, looking at it too.

"Daleks!" Ianto gasped.

Ianto had seen a file on Daleks. No one at Torchwood had ever actually encountered one but there had been a report filed there none the less by someone in 1901. Ianto only knew about it because he had filed something else near it. A description had been included and there was no mistake at all. The Cybermen turned and began firing out the window into the sky.

"Shit." Ianto said and skirted around them.

A blast of energy nearly caught him in the back of the head.

"Delete!"

Ianto kept running, not bothering to try and shoot them. All that mattered was finding Lisa and getting out alive. Was this the end of the world? There were Daleks in the sky, Cybermen in the building, and he was being shot at.

"Lisa!" Ianto yelled.

Turning the corner sharply so that he nearly fell over, Ianto was just in time to see Max receive a saw to the head, cutting open his skull. Vomit threatened to rise in Ianto's throat and he barely controlled himself. The Cyberman removed Max's brain, letting his body fall bloodied and limp onto the floor. They then placed the brain inside the open face of a Cyberman into a bed of circuits. Suddenly the closed the face and the Cyberman began to walk. Ianto backed into the wall. Max was upgraded. That Cyberman was Max!

"Oh God!" Ianto couldn't help but cry out.

One Cyberman turned and saw him.

"You will be upgraded."

"Like hell I will!" Ianto cried out.

Ianto shot at the Cyberman again, his bullets doing nothing. The Cyberman continued to advance and Ianto decided now was the time to run. Instead the building shook again violently causing Ianto to fall back into the wall, hitting his head. His vision blurred and he suddenly thought about how wonderful it would be to go to sleep.

'No!'

Shaking his head he stood up. The Cyberman which had been coming toward him was now focusing on the scene outside. Hundred and hundreds of Daleks were in the sky, shooting at anything below that moved. The were targeting the Cybermen as well as the people.

"Ianto!"

Turning his head suddenly through a wash of pain Ianto saw Lisa and Mark, Cybermen leading them away.

"Lisa!" Ianto shouted and ran straight for her regardless of the Cybermen around.

"We must complete body upgrades," the Cyberman who had his hand on Mark's shoulder said.

"We must graft onto the body to upgrade." Another said. "Their own metals will be upgraded with them."

Then two Cybermen pushed Mark through a clear tarp which was hanging from the ceiling. Ianto could hear Mark start screaming in pain. Lisa's eyes went wide and she clapped her hands over her mouth.

'Lisa, oh god, Lisa.'

She was so close. He could get to her. Running faster Ianto suddenly found himself face to face with a Cyberman.

"No!" He shouted trying to back away but the Cyberman grabbed his shoulder in a vice grip.

"Ianto!"

At the sound of Lisa's voice Ianto managed to look past the Cyberman and saw, to his horror, that Lisa was being pushed to the same place which Mark had gone. A new Cyberman came out from behind the tarp and Ianto knew that it was Mark.

"You will be upgraded bodily." The Cyberman said and pushed her through. 

"LISA!" Ianto screamed, fighting against the Cyberman in his way.

The fire from the down the hall was spreading and Ianto could feel its heat at his back. The Cyberman was in front of him, holding him fast, and Lisa was screaming in agony. Everything was falling, breaking, everything was shattering around him.

Then suddenly the Cybermen around him were all sucked by some unseen force out the window. The one in front of him broke the glass as it flew and knocked Ianto down onto his knees. A grinding noise screamed in Ianto's ears and small bits of metal which looked like knives and restraints and scarp ripped apart followed the Cybermen out the window from where Lisa had disappeared. Tripping on the debris, fire all around now, dirt and sweat in his eyes Ianto ran to where Lisa had disappeared. He looked in and found her lying on some sort of metal frame.

"Oh, Lisa!" Ianto cried, anguish flooding his body.

There was metal all over her body. Her chest was completely covered, her feet turned into boots, a helmet on her head. She was half covered in metal and her face was pinched tight in pain. Reaching in Ianto pulled at broken pieces around her, dragging her out.

"Oh, god, Lisa? Lisa!"

"Ianto…." She said weakly, her voice sounded altered. Then she began crying and screaming in utter agony.

"Help!" Ianto shouted, tears beginning to stream down his face. This could not be happening, not to them, not to Lisa! "Somebody, please!"

The fire was getting closer and there was no one around, no one to help. Ianto didn't know what to do. He didn't know how to help her. He couldn't just pry the metal off her. He didn't know what to do!

Ianto dragged Lisa as best he could down the hall. She was much heavier now with the metal covering her body. Torchwood One was crumbling all around them and they had to get out.

"Lisa, it'll be all right." Ianto spoke through the tears. "We're getting out."

"Ianto, it hurts! It hurts!" She was screaming and Ianto wanted to crush something, to kill someone, to crumble into a ball, to do something, anything to help her!

There was so much pain in her voice.

Somehow Ianto managed to get himself and Lisa away from the fire to a safe point. It was dark and he could hear screams and commotion still coming faintly from outside. Lisa's head was in his lap and she was moaning and crying to him.

"Ianto, please, Ianto. Help me…" no tears were falling from her eyes but she was still crying, "it hurts…. Help me."

"I will, Lisa." The tears in Ianto's eyes would not stop. His head was splitting from what had to be a concussion and he felt his heart splintering at the sound of Lisa in pain, at what had become of her, at what had been done to her. It felt like his world was trying to crack apart and swallow him up. "I'm going to help you. I'm going to fix you. I won't leave you, Lisa."

What were they going to do?

(Fin)

13


End file.
